Lifes Issues with A Christian Coming Out

Lifes Issues with Lloyd Rosen with his guest Lou Anne Smoot & Jacqui IWU

Lou Anne Smoot, a then 60-year-old lesbian who, as a young woman, sacrificed her happiness to do what she had been taught was the "right thing."  She married and remained faithful to her husband for 37 years until she simply couldn't keep up the pretense any longer.  At that time she was teaching a ladies Sunday School class at the First Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas - an area of Texas affectionately referred to as being behind the "Pine Curtain." 

This retired public school teacher, holder of two college degrees, mother of four, grandmother of six, and Baptist Sunday School teacher, courageously changed her life in the direction she felt God was "prodding" her to go. Despite the uncomfortableness of remaining a member of her Baptist church when she divorced and began "coming out," she remained faithful to God and to her church at a time when most homosexuals her age either remained "in the closet" or turned their backs on the churches that seemed to turn their backs on them.

Lou Anne is now an activist for gay rights and serves on the boards of both East Texas PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and Project TAG (Tyler Area Gays). She was awarded the 2010 Project TAG Advocate of the Year Award. She volunteers with Meals on Wheels and the Bethesda Health Clinic, and is active with The League of Women Voters. In her "spare time" she enjoys reading, traveling, working in the yard, playing Freecell on the computer and playing Rummikub. She leads an Adopt-A-Highway cleanup group, a monthly Ladies Dinner group, and a monthly Board Games group as well as spends at least one day a week babysitting grandchildren.